The Chandigarh Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has directed the Director, State Institute of Education, Sector 32, Chandigarh, to release the salaries of three contractual employees without forcing them to sign fresh contracts with new terms and conditions.
The employees had approached the tribunal through advocate KB Sharma with the contention that the institute withheld their salary and was forcing them to sign a new contract with new terms and conditions.
The appointees will give an undertaking in writing in the institute that they will not file any claim or court case against the institute for the extension or regularisation of services. Rohit Chandalia and two other applicants said that they had been working at the institute on a contractual basis for a long time.
They were appointed as peon, sweeper and chowkidar on contract basis for one year and the appointment letters were issued in 2010 and 2011. They further said that in view of the latest situation, the respondents were required to consider their case for regularisation, whereas till date the respondents have failed to consider the same.
The applicants are aggrieved by the action on the part of the respondents in changing their terms and conditions after more than 14 years. They prayed before the Bench that till the final decision , the respondents be told to maintain the status quo of the applicants’ services and they be allowed to continue with same terms and conditions mentioned in the initial appointment letters.
After hearing the arguments, the tribunal directed the respondents to release the salary of the applicant for the month of May without forcing them to sign the new contract within one week, while fixing the next hearing for July 7.
